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September 2000 Archives
September 30
A friendly, non-partisan reminder:
If you haven't done so already, you've exactly 10 days left to register to vote. If you've had a change of address recently, you'll need to register again. Remember, this election
isn't simply about the presidency. Depending on where you live, every office from congressperson to school board president could be up for grabs. Register now, and make a difference in November!
posted by aladfar at 11:41 PM PST - 16 comments
Looks like this guy is using the web to spread even more disinformation about sexism. No wonder he has to
GIVE his book away for free.
Among the gems of wisdom, "If women really made 59 cents on the dollar for the same work as men, what business could compete by hiring men at all..."? Sheesh!
posted by murray_kester at 10:53 PM PST - 1 comments
Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic
Jakob Nielsen says "to take the Internet to the next level, users must begin posting their own material ...
the vast wasteland of Geocities confirms this. Giving users a home-page editing program does not turn them into good writers."
Meg takes Nielsen
to task: "his recommended approach is crazy ...Why bog kids down with HTML?" Blogs, of course, are her solution. But for
some folks this simply doesn't add up. Saying kids shouldn't learn HTML because Blogger exists is like saying they shouldn't learn to add because calculators exist.
posted by webchick at 8:16 PM PST - 122 comments
Who owns your name?
I could not find this story on the web. I saw it in print. It appeared in an article by Geoffrey Vanderburg in the Friday Sept. 29th Edmonton Journal.
Here's an excerpt.
"An internet company with links to the National Firearms Association has been ordered to give up a Web site using Justice Minister Anne McLellan's name. Smartcanuk Internet Services has been told to transfer control of annemclellan.com to Canada's justice minister, McLellan's Edmonton lawyer said Thursday"
Al Green, owner of Smartcanuk... says the ruling sets a "very very dangerous precedent."
"Sandra Sellers, an eResolution arbitrator...., decided Monday to grant transfer of annemclellan.com and annemclellan.org to McLellan."
McLellan was able to demonstrate that the domain name was identical or similar to a trade-mark, that Green had no legitimate interests in the name, and that the name was being used in bad faith....
Green argues McLellan is not a trademark, she's not famous and his use of the Web site does not constitute "bad faith"
I think I have to agree with the arbitrator on this one. If there is one last sacred domain we should be entitled to it is our own names. Although in the case of the John Smiths of the world that position is likely to take some heat. Any thoughts people?
posted by daddyray at 6:40 PM PST - 8 comments
Great Nader flyer,
which really points out which issues are being ignored and is completely suitable to be put under the wipers of parked cars at your local Super K-Mart.
posted by skallas at 3:11 PM PST - 1 comments
The Tecno AO
electromagnetic bioprotectionoscillator is an almond shaped disk that is 1.2 inches long and attaches to the casing of your cell phone or pager. It emits a magnetic oscillation that may counter the potentially harmful effects of the radiation produced by cell phones.
(quoted from the FAQ)
posted by tamim at 2:46 PM PST - 11 comments
Gnutella -- DeCSS Redux?
Anyone catch the
Salon article on gnutella? Speculation by Cary Sherman, general counsel of the RIAA, on how to bring gnutella down includes the following:
"...There are also people disseminating the program, and people who are using it to disseminate materials. There could be legal strategies to address that."
Once again people merely "disseminating" an otherwise legal program are -- the phase I believe is -- actionable.
posted by leo at 1:34 AM PST - 8 comments
September 29
Giddy 3.
Not to be confused with the other egg-centric Amiga 500 series of games, Codemaster's "Dizzy". Of course.
posted by holloway at 10:53 PM PST - 1 comments
The Little Graphics App That Could!
If you like vector illustraction programs, you should definitely check this out! Xara is a zillion times better than Illustrator, which is major bloatware. The last version of Xara, version 2, was only 7 megs. I've used it for years now. It's lean, fast, and never crashes. Now Xara Ltd. is about to release a new version. You can download the public beta for free at their website. If you buy a copy, it's only $145!!!
posted by grumblebee at 1:38 PM PST - 6 comments
Small town America.
In the wake of a scandal involving a hidden video camera taping in the girl's junior high locker room, teacher Dennis Curtis and Assistant Principal Gary Ferguson have been recommended for dismissal.
So what's the problem? Curtis and Ferguson are the whistleblowers, not the alleged culprits. Harry "Noonie" Red Eagle Jr., seen positioning the camera on one of the tapes, has resigned. His father is the superintendent of the school system, and recommended Curtis and Ferguson be fired.
posted by lescour at 9:04 AM PST - 1 comments
130 Years old!
See! God may not exist, but technology will outpace religion and THEN I will live FOREVER!
posted by tiaka at 8:55 AM PST - 14 comments
Chicago's online crime tracker
allows you to see a map showing all reported crime within a 2 week span for any intersection in the city. Type in Grand & Dearborn and set it for 1/2 mile to see the truly astounding amount of crime that happens in River North. No wonder I eat at my desk.
posted by thirteen at 12:24 AM PST - 12 comments
September 28
Baby killing accomplice in trouble with law again.
This news item seemed to have fallen through the crack. I am tempted to make some sociological comment about the criminal mindset of people who resort to frivolous baby killing, but, I am too ourtaged to write anything remotely coherent.
posted by tamim at 10:27 PM PST - 3 comments
As conspiracy rumors go, this is a doozy:
World Oil Magazine is hearing from its Mid East sources that the Arab states are so angry with Gore's choice of a Jewish running mate that they're going to cut back production in the hopes of swinging the election to Bush. I'm sure the Gore team gave plenty of thought as to how Lieberman would play in Peoria, but I wonder if they considered how much he would antagonize Damascus?
posted by nikzhowz at 8:50 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
September 27
The best Comic in recent memory NOT written by Scott McCloud
Remember the Real World in San Francisco? That was the one with Pedro dying of AIDS and Puck getting kicked off. Well, I just read a book about Pedro and Judd's friendship called Pedro and Me. This is the best comic I have read since 'Jar of Fools' or 'Understanding Comics.' I read it today at lunch and it moved me to tears. Anyone who knows someone with AIDS should read this book.
posted by DragonBoy at 10:37 PM PST - 2 comments
Should I be flattered?
Or am I just overly paranoid? I used to cover my page with a cartoon
dabitch ranting about ads, and huge "mail me" buttons (well huge buttons everywhere). It was some kind of faze I was going through last fall - In January this year BrandEra opened it's door - and they have the
ad gal. This is kind of funny. :)
posted by dabitch at 8:58 PM PST - 1 comments
Greek Ferry Sinks; 64 dead.
I know this is just another news item to you guys. But to us Greeks it's a travesty (besides a tragedy obviously). Crew watching a soccer game; ferry hits charted, lighted rock; ship was 7 years past European legal lifetime age (to help some shipping companies get fatter profits). Only thing that might get reforms in shipping safety moving is, well, media attention. So, there.
posted by costas at 8:05 PM PST - 1 comments
Free TiVo? Heck, I want a Free Car.
I don't care if Amazon is selling Cars online now, I want my next car to be free. This company gives you a free car, wrapped in advertising, for up to two years. Not a bad deal considering the cost of cars these days. You can get a Ford explorer (no word on the tires) or a VW beetle. I'll be watching my TiVo TV from the back seat!
posted by DragonBoy at 6:18 PM PST - 15 comments
I want to be injected with respirocytes.
They're little mechanical devices that do the same job as your red blood cells, but they're 236 times more efficient.
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time, and could certainly be very useful. Among the examples they give for people who could benefit are firefighters (too much smoke? just hold your breath!), deep sea divers (tune the respirocytes to remove N2, and no more long decompression times), and choking victims (this one should be obvious).
posted by CrayDrygu at 1:24 PM PST - 10 comments
Zap those wolves into submission
- Conspiracy buffs beware. This one's true.
So the U.S. Agriculture Department, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Department are conducting experiments involving livestock, electricity and wolves in Montana - on a ranch owned by Ted Turner.
Apparently those nasty wolves have a habit of biting livestock, so to stop it they are strapping electric collars on the wolves to train them with an electric jolt when they get "within biting distance" of a particular calf. The "trained" and somewhat damaged wolves are set to be released into the wilds in October.
Beautiful counter-quote for this is from a USA Today article about Ted Turner's preserve. Turner is quoted as saying "You can see what we're doing, right? We're just getting out of nature's way. That's all we want to do - get out of the way and let nature go back the way it was." (halfway down page)
posted by kokogiak at 1:12 PM PST - 1 comments
Talk About Media Bias
While some people complain about "most weblogs' liberal bias" (even though the infamous Drudge gets more web traffic than all the blogs combined), here is one of Hollywood's most liberal corporations (with top execs throwing lotsa bucks at Gore) deciding that the way to succeed at radio in one of the most liberal media markets in America is to fill a talk station with voices that start with Limbaugh and turn right (and frequently cross the line between simple Incorrectness and out-and-out bigotry). Explain THAT in 250 words of less (No TiVos will be awarded).
Link lifted from Pop Culture Junk Mail's Alt-Log, an entertainingly biased medium
posted by wendell at 10:54 AM PST - 8 comments
Are you Pee-Shy?
YOU ARE NOT ALONE. In fact, recent studies show that about 7% of the public, or 17 million people, may suffer from this social anxiety disorder. Often referred to as Pee-Shy, Shy-Bladder, Bashful Bladder, etc.
It could be more people than that. And the majority of them are men. But how many have the guts to step forward and publicly admit it? Not many.
posted by da5id at 10:08 AM PST - 16 comments
The DropLift:
A wonderful culture jamming project. I was involved in the early stages, back when it was initially being discussed. I can't believe that they actually made it happen! The
DropLift site itself provides all the materials necessary to get involved.
posted by aladfar at 9:43 AM PST - 8 comments
i happened to catch bush on larry king live last night.
what i found to be especially interesting was his body language. talking about women, being popular with women, winning the women's vote - shaking head "no" the whole time...having women in top level govt. positions - shaking head "no"...he shook his head "no" a lot. talking about reagan and what a great president he was - shaking head "yes".
posted by centrs at 12:57 AM PST - 14 comments
September 26
What if they had a school shooting and no one reported it?
*sigh* I watched the typical US evening news broadcasts hoping to see some coverage of this event, but there was none. I don't want to believe that the reason it went underreported was because it happened at an "inner city" school and the media has the perception that "those people kill each other all the time, what's one more?" but the small, dark, pessimistic part of myself is starting to believe I'm right.
posted by likorish at 4:27 PM PST - 10 comments
S26 protests get violent.
Once again, those bloody radicals are blamed for turning a nice nonviolent protest bad. I seem to recall someone dismissing my criticism of the movement for not being on the same ideological page.
posted by norm at 1:11 PM PST - 19 comments
They always get this wrong,
and it's really annoying. Shouldn't a paramilitary group headed by a marxist be considered "left-wing"? Somehow the definition of "right-wing" seems to include everything the media finds distasteful. Over and over again, I see Hitler referred to as "right-wing" when he was very much leftist. The word NAZI is an acronym for the German Socialist party.
posted by mildew at 10:05 AM PST - 15 comments
C.J. Hunter failed drug tests.
What I don't get is why the IOC brought this up now, months after it happened, and right when the track and field events are going. He's not even competing in the Olympics. He's there to support his wife, Marion Jones. What purpose is served by announcing this information except to bring doubt on Marion's efforts to win her events. The IOC and the media have done a bad thing here, in my mind, it confuses and disgusts me.
posted by cowboy at 7:35 AM PST - 15 comments
No way but to decommission the World Bank and IMF
-- BusinessWorld columnist Walden Bello explains why the policies of these two institutions have magnified world poverty and inequality, and traces the opposition movement from its origins in the Global South, to Seattle, Prague and beyond:
"The historic Prague Spring of 1968 spelled the beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire. Will Prague, the site of the World Bank-IMF annual meeting for the year 2000, join Seattle in December 1998 and Washington, D.C. in April of this year as one of the catalytic events ushering the beginning of the end of hegemony of corporate-driven globalization?..."
posted by johnb at 3:07 AM PST - 8 comments
September 25
How bizarre.
University of Texas at Dallas "Words and Phrases that Offend Students" (mostly blacks and women). So stunned, I don't know what to think of it.
posted by owillis at 11:09 PM PST - 20 comments
Miadora
is no more, and in the source of its farewell is this:
<!-- My thanks to all of the great managers, merchandisers and technologists who made Miadora and exciting and challenging place to work. Ted A. McCarty, Web Producer, tmccarty@mindspring.com -->
It's touching, even if it can be parsed as: "I need a job!" Sort of like the caterer passing out business cards in the Titanic's last moments.
posted by luke at 8:27 PM PST - 1 comments
TiVos are raining from the sky!
Jason Kottke won, so I entered. I won, and while my piece was obviously a piece of literary genius, it wasn't *that* good. I think we need to do a scientific study -- who can write the stupidest "Why I Want a TiVo" essay and still win?
posted by benbrown at 6:04 PM PST - 169 comments
interesting freenet newsbite
at wirednews -- but could something so (potentially) powerful really get folded into IE and netscape? i assume this would be something like setting up your browser to launch the app from a freenet:// link ala hotline. or would microsoft and aol actually work to integrate a file sharing app? i tend to doubt it.
posted by subpixel at 4:18 PM PST - 1 comments
Ken Kesey's page, in which:
He offers to burn copies of about two hundred minutes of recordings that he made of Neil Cassady, driving the Magic Bus, in 1964. Here's the kicker....no credit cards, no C.O.D.....you order them, they send them, they bill you, you pay them. Trust me, folks, if you're a fan of the Beats, this is amazing stuff. Hearing Kerouac's muse rant into the night while ballin' down the highway is a rare treat indeed.
posted by Optamystic at 2:50 PM PST - 1 comments
West steps up threats against Yugoslavia
-- "The Democratic Opposition of Serbia has signed up to the platform of the G17, a think-tank of market economists again funded by National Endowment for Democracy [an adjunct to the CIA]. This economic blueprint calls for the adoption of the German mark as the main currency for all of FRY, following in the footsteps of the Montenegrin republic last year. Other proposals include reduction of public spending, ending subsidies on food and other forms of social protection. The continuation of US and European economic sanctions on the FRY is being cynically exploited to bludgeon the population into accepting these terms as the condition for ending their economic isolation...." [more...]
posted by johnb at 12:19 PM PST - 11 comments
NBCi
relaunches as probably the most boring, blase portal site I've ever seen and their stock
goes up? Is it just me, or does it look like they bought the site from "Al's Do It Yourself Portals"?
posted by owillis at 10:55 AM PST - 7 comments
scheming she-devils, alive and well.
the lincoln park trixie society (based in chicago) sounds like a joke: how to bed a rich man, where to find the best puppy-groomer, where to live, ad nauseum. but unfortunately...it's not. good for a laugh (or a cringe).
posted by patricking at 10:17 AM PST - 32 comments
September 24
Barenaked Ladies use ingenuity instead of lawyers to outfox Napster users.
Singer Steven Page can be heard in one download telling users: "Although you thought you were downloading our new single, what you actually were downloading is an advertisement for our new album."
In retrospect, it's so clever, it's obvious. We're all smacking our heads thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?" Appropriating the Napster system to recoup valuable advertising targeted to those who actually like the band is so elegant in its simplicity, and everyone but the would-be copier is satisfied. (Until they BUY the album)
posted by mikewas at 2:42 PM PST - 8 comments
Live Russian TV
Interesting even though I don't know what they're saying. Rumor has it that you can also see some
live Olympics action there too
posted by owillis at 12:50 PM PST - 3 comments
I don't know how serious
this guy is, but he does have a comprehensive
Fag Facts page. Some times I don't know what is good satire and what is just ignorant hate propaganda.
posted by tamim at 11:32 AM PST - 22 comments
Invasion of privacy may be offset by cheaper insurance
If this doesn't scare the hell out of you you don't drive a car.
Sure it is an excellent idea for fleet management and for personal security.
But do we really want insurance companies to know everything about our driving habits and whereabouts? Think about it. They can dictate your rate based on your speed, and ultimately can base your claim on data collected while you were driving.
Big insurance is one of the most financial powerful forces out there, next to big tobacco. They are already invasive, requiring blood samples and medicals for life policies. Imagine if they could collect the intimate details of our daily lives.
posted by daddyray at 11:03 AM PST - 12 comments
Will this
Kritter be the next step in web cams? It uses firewire, instead of USB and claims to offer 30 fps with no compression. Is the video phone here (and functional)? -g
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 7:09 AM PST - 10 comments
Astronomers are looking at the
biggest sunspot in nine years, but what's a lay-person to do?
Slashdot posters recommend projecting the sun's image onto cardboard through reversed binoculars, or just looking at the sun in the morning or evening when it doesn't hurt so bad. By clicking anywhere on the screen you agree not to hold me responsible for stupid things you do that damage your eyes.
posted by sudama at 1:05 AM PST - 1 comments
September 23
Is this really a sport?
Anyone remember those McDonalds commercials showing "Future...Olympian's in a given sport" when the baby's were performing similar routines? Little do your parents know. They would tell you to stop jumping around on the furniture. Now just tell them you are looking to be the next Olympic champion.
posted by brent at 8:09 PM PST - 29 comments
Now, I have nothing but respect for Carly Fiorina.
She's done an outstanding job at HP and deserves to be rewarded. But I've never understood this business of having the CEO also be the chairman of the Board.
The most important job that the Board of Directors has is to decide when to fire the CEO, which I emphasize that Ms. Fiorina does not deserve in the slightest
at this time. But that time may eventually come, as it does for all CEOs, and how the hell do you do it if the CEO you're trying to fire is also the chairman of the Board of Directors?
Would Corel be in the mess it's in today if Michael Cowpland had not been on its board?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:12 PM PST - 8 comments
Child taken from parents over gender politics.
Born Zachary Lipsomb, this six year old child has insisted since the age of two that she's actually a girl named Aurora, and her parents have tried to support her on this -- but the state of Ohio is convinced she's sick and needs treatment.
posted by webmutant at 10:54 AM PST - 21 comments
Old entry, but I like it.
"The stores lining the waterfront streets sell what I can only describe as pre-processed trash. This is stuff which possesses an intrinsic value so low that you could legitimately buy it from the store, walk out on the sidewalk and drop it into a trash can. I stopped counting yesterday, when I passed 14 stores which sold some merchandise, which I could view from the sidewalk, that was identical to the merchandise to the store next to it. Fourteen stores in a row, selling the exact same sorry-assed shot glasses with the Golden Gate Bridge painted on it."
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:50 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
September 22
Reuters 09/22 6:34PM -- NBC, which in August bid for the exclusive right to host a presidential debate, said on Friday it would broadcast a baseball game instead of the first showdown between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush. "We have a contract with major-league baseball. You don't seriously think we have any interest in democracy, do you?,''
said NBC spokeswoman Barbara Levin. "If we were offerred more than the value of the baseball contract, we would be televising it.''
posted by sudama at 11:03 PM PST - 6 comments
Homophobic decision
in my home state is to be appealled. Requests to change one's name are very rarely denied. This judge has really stepped over the line by worrying about "the appearance of [the requester] being married. . . [and] . . . how this would appear to our neighbors, to our shopkeepers and to society at large."
posted by fpatrick at 2:08 PM PST - 4 comments
"Gee... I'm kinda thirsty... and I think I gotta pee, too... Lemme see, there's this big hotel's lobby, those five or six restaurants... and this hole-in-the-wall-bar with the entrance you could walk right by and not even know it was there, whose patrons all seem to be men casting admiring glances at each other across the room... Seems OK to me..." Yeah, buddy,
I believe your story...
posted by m.polo at 12:39 PM PST - 1 comments
Remember
those PSA's the tobacco companies said violated their agreement with the federal government? Well,
they're back, and harsher than ever
I saw the body bag commercial last night at 3 am . . . when all PSA are played.
posted by alan at 11:28 AM PST - 7 comments
There must be something in the water where I live. From the same county that brought you the
2-faced cat, we now have "
The Case of the Bread-Molester." Samuel Feldman had been charged with damaging up to $8,000 worth of baked goods, including 175 bags of bagels, 227 bags of potato dinner rolls, and 3,087 bags of sliced bread over three years.
Mr. Whipple would be proud.
posted by quirked at 7:55 AM PST - 3 comments
It seems to me that this kid
is only getting in trouble because a bunch of people are sore losers. Aside from the legal trappings that they used to frame him, don't you think that people stupid enough to take financial advice via postings on Yahoo (or other sites) shouldn't whine when they turn out to be bogus? thoughts?
posted by ooklah at 6:42 AM PST - 9 comments
September 21
Building A Great DHTML Chaser
-- by Aaron Boodman. I've built one or two of these - what Aaron calls "Chasers" - you know, the little floating layer that follows you on a web page as you scroll. I was never too thrilled with the outcome for various reasons, but Aaron really put in extra efforts to resolve DHTML animation issues and came up with a fairly slick bit of code. A sample can be seen
here.
Whether you think they're annoying or useful, the based-on-refresh-rate animation info is still fairly useful.
posted by kokogiak at 5:06 PM PST - 10 comments
Click for Clean Air.
"Canada argues that clearcutting our old-growth forests and replanting them, and building nuclear reactors in developing countries, is more effective than reducing fossil-fuel pollution. It also wants to buy "pollution rights" from countries like Russia that are burning less fossil fuel because their economies have collapsed."
Not that Canada's alone in the above, and not that the solution is a click away, but you have to start somewhere. For those of you who aren't Canadian, David Suzuki is a respected scientist and public figure who's been worth listening to since...since...forever.
If you're not Canadian, you can still participate.....
posted by ajh at 4:57 PM PST - 2 comments
Democratizing the Mass Media
-- A way to finance
Metafilter without banner ads: -- "Under Baker's proposal, the government would grant every adult citizen an entitlement to direct the U.S. Treasury to allocate a specific sum of money (let's say $150 per person per year) to a non-profit communications organization, or portions thereof to organizations, of his or her choice. The allocation could work something like the current taxpayer check-off to political parties, except that non-taxpayers would be entitled to participate as well as taxpayers -- just pick-up a form at the post office or at the ballot box, fill it out, and hand it in."
posted by johnb at 3:49 PM PST - 23 comments
Voting Green where it's white?
Nader's strongest showing by far is in Alaska, apparently: polls put him at 17%. Now my knowledge of Alaska is mainly drawn from
Travels with Samantha, so I'm intrigued by the reasons for his support? Is it strictly the environmental issue (although plenty of people are in Alaska to exploit its natural resources) or because, as a friend said, "that's where all the crazies go?"
posted by holgate at 12:06 PM PST - 3 comments
Why Big Oil Backed The Fuel Protests In Europe
-- "Watched from a distance, the oil blockades in Britain look like spontaneous popular uprisings: regular working folk, frightened for their livelihoods, getting together to say, "Enough's enough." But before this David and Goliath story goes any further, it deserves a closer reading...."
posted by johnb at 1:01 AM PST - 11 comments
September 20
We've heard of intelligence and emotional intelligence, but what about spiritual intelligence?
Gary Zukav is spiritually
brilliant. He frequently appears on Oprah, from which I assume (accepting all implicit risks) that his audience consists largely of women. Which is too bad, because men have quite a lot to learn from this man as well, and it would do a world of good (being, unjustly, a man's world) if every man did.
posted by sudama at 11:18 PM PST - 39 comments
I want one of these.
There's an airplane which comes around here every once in a while and circles overhead for perhaps half an hour, then leaves. I think it's a realtor. (There's been a lot of building in this area recently, with housing developments going in and stuff like that.) It's damned annoying and I get tired of listening to it. Sometimes it's a helicoptor instead.
If I can't have one, then I want
one of these instead.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:26 PM PST - 8 comments
Wall of Sound Soundbooth goes public beta
I've never seen an Internet radio site that gives you so much control over what you're listening to. Stations are streamed, but on a track by track basis, so you can pause and skip tracks. You can create your own stations to mix genres, specific albums, specific artists or even specific
tracks. Am I naive? How does it compare to other Internet radio?
posted by dan_of_brainlog at 11:43 AM PST - 18 comments
I like
this site, but it looks an awful lot like
this other site. Have you no respect for the property of others, Stewart? Must you steal to make yourself feel good?
posted by ericost at 8:51 AM PST - 29 comments
Barnes And Noble steps up for sloppy seconds.
After Amazon elected not to renew their agreement with Yahoo, Barnes and Noble replaced the online bookseller as Yahoo's premier advertiser for books. It is uncertain as to whether or not Yahoo and BN have had the grueling discussion regarding the number of partners they've each shared in the past, but it looks like an optimistic relationship regardless.
posted by Hankins at 6:51 AM PST - 4 comments
Brilliant and funny
Gore Vidal Interview (Real Audio).
Question: "Al Gore is a distant relative of yours. Do you see a debate going on between him and Texas Gov. George W. Bush?"
Answer: "No, no, there's no debate going on right now. They are essentially the same on the basic issues. They are both candidates of corporate America. They're paid for. How did George W. Bush, a man who has officially [advocated for] education, but has carefully avoided education for himself, end up where he's at? He's about the most ignorant man who has ever run for president...but he got $70 million from corporate America, and they expect him to pay them back." (partial transcript
here)
posted by johnb at 2:09 AM PST - 15 comments
September 19
Equatorial Guinea has a new swimming star: 22-year-old Eric Moussambani. He won his heat in the 100m freestyle,
despite never having learned how to swim at all until January, and having never even raced more than 50m before this race. His winning time: 1:52.72. Since that's about a minute more than it takes most Olympians, it should be noted here that his two competitors had been disqualified for false states, so he had the pool to himself. You really need to see the video of him "swimming" to believe it. But it's obvious that Sydney now has its own Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards!
posted by aaron at 10:48 PM PST - 8 comments
Is everyone asleep at the wheel?
"The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to normalize trade with China, marking a turning point in a half-century of stormy relations between the worlds strongest power and its most populous nation.
In return, trade relations will no longer hinge on Chinas human rights record, a link that has long irritated Beijing." It is a sad day for human rights in China.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:56 PM PST - 25 comments
The author
of
The Anarchist Cookbook wants is to go out of print, but his publisher owns the copyright and keeps pumping them out. I had always heard the CIA published it, and filled it with faulty recipies designed to kill anybody messing with bomb materials.
Might be another twist on recent copyright discussions, but what do I know, I paid for my copy of
Steal This Book.
via
BoingBoing
posted by thirteen at 3:51 PM PST - 7 comments
Manny Poppins?
Would you hire a male nanny? I don't see any problems with it as long as there is a good back-ground check.
posted by da5id at 9:51 AM PST - 17 comments
We're overdue for a big disaster.
"Two years without a harvest? It would probably bust civilisation. People would survive all right. It really would cut us back, and that is the sort of thing nobody really prepares for. It's not some ecological poison or GM foods or nuclear that is going to get us, it is going to be some perfectly ordinary natural event."
Almost enough to make me stock canned goods again.
posted by norm at 8:15 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
September 18
How to tilt at windmills.
What these guys don't undestand is that Apple can't make money selling software. They develop software so that they can sell the hardware on which it runs, which is their real profit center.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:15 PM PST - 32 comments
No Refuge: He fled the war in Congo for America. The I.N.S. greeted him by putting him in jail. -- this week's
nyt mag has stories of people who have been in new york city for one year. this one is especially powerful.
posted by palegirl at 5:32 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Censorship on a public Blog?
- When someone posts a link to content that others find shocking to a public blog (in this case Flazoom.com) how should the blog-master handle it. This got me thinking about how we handle the content at MeFi - which is better? Removing the post a few layers, or bereating the poster with lots of mean comment posts?
posted by DragonBoy at 4:54 PM PST - 24 comments
Wired
has an interesting interview this month with David Boies, chief counsel for Napster and DOJ vs. MS (unfortunately, this link just points to the fact that the content won't be online until 10.10. With the debate about Napster everywhere (including september 16th below), I thought it helped to clarify exactly what Napster's position is. I thought John Perry Barlow's (EFF) essay was helpful as well.
posted by Sean Meade at 11:40 AM PST - 1 comments
September 17
Another innovation from Digital Convergence:
In addition to having a pretty much useless product, CueCat's product-release-to-privacy-violation rate is spectacular! To quote their email:
Dear :CueCat member,
We've been alerted to a security breach in our system that may have
exposed certain members' names and email addresses. As one of the members who may be susceptible, we want to explain to you how you may be affected and what we are doing to rectify the situation.
(more...)
posted by anildash at 9:28 PM PST - 1 comments
What is up with this?
I thought the weblogging community was the only one to engage in petty bickering? What I want to know is, while I can understand having a free Geocities site or something just to flame somebody, utterly
removing your paid-for site stikes me as a bit off-kilter.
posted by mrmorgan at 6:20 PM PST - 9 comments
Time Out
finally reveal their new direction with their London Shopping Guide, running off Oracle and Vignette. This is a bit of a cheek, but I was wondering what people thought of it. It's not really self-blogging because although I worked on the site, I had a fairly minor part to play, and I figure that "popular site gets substantial new direction and new technology" still counts as interesting and valid under Metafilter rules. Slap me down if I'm wrong.
posted by barbelith at 1:51 PM PST - 3 comments
$14,000 a year
for devout Christians attending "top 5" graduate and professional programs, in order to seed national leadership with believers. An alternative approach is
Ave Maria School of Law, founded by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan expressly because they believe that Christian professional education is essentially impossible in the elite institutions.
posted by MattD at 1:33 PM PST - 10 comments
UK Big Brother ends, and people actually care. (Hint to US producers: An ex-nun who converted to hedonistic lesbianism beats a guy with one leg and a roofer whose idea of individuality is dying his hair.) The thing I'm most interested in, though: Is it true that the UK's National Health Service refuses to do heart and lung transplants on the, um, genetically inferior?
posted by aaron at 11:00 AM PST - 5 comments
Got to get this
(just couldn't find a better link on Adobe -- the press release is very dry) which basically means finding someone else who's bought it and copying it of them.
So, given the in depth discussion of design copyright here, where do we stand when it comes to software?
Who can honestly say they haven't got any major pieces of software on their machines that they didn't pay for? And has any private individual ever been caught with same?
posted by James Bachman at 3:41 AM PST - 29 comments
October Suprise. The Wall Street Journal is holding a contest asking readers to predict what Clinton will do to influence the November election.
posted by argus at 12:05 AM PST - 4 comments
September 16
Elian: the Movie
- coming soon to small screens everywhere. My TV is riddled with commercials for this epic, touch-your-heart-and-soul 4 hour saga of Miami's favorite son.
posted by tomorama at 10:07 PM PST - 5 comments
Lars' statement to the Comittee
- I don't know how many lawyers co-operated for writting this, but it's the art of writing at its best. It almost convinced me to stop trading .mp3 files. What do you think about Lars' speech?
posted by kchristidis at 12:42 PM PST - 24 comments
I have no doubts that people will get exercise from watching
this workout video, but somehow, I don't think it's going to be aerobics. Check the reviews, I didn't even know there was a genre like this. This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen at Amazon, anyone seen anything weirder?
posted by mathowie at 10:25 AM PST - 13 comments
September 15
7-Eleven has Gore, Bush and No Opinion cups.
Then on their website is a 7-Election page using daily sale results from 5000 of their stores, you can see which cup is being chosen the most. (The cup gets scanned at the register and each cup has it's own UPC.) Right now the natonal cumulative results are 20% Gore 20% Bush and 60% No Opinion. Very neat idea, they also have links to register to vote for real.
posted by thirdball at 8:08 PM PST - 6 comments
So have you Americans (and others) see it yet?
As a cynical aussie and fan of television kitch (eg. I like watching the Eurovison song contest over a pizza every year), I'm interested in people's opinions of the opening ceremony. What images and impressions did you get.
posted by lagado at 5:21 PM PST - 20 comments
Something about this
really makes me mad. I saw the trailer for this movie and was totally blown away. They even have a cool url. So I decided to check it out... boy was I disappointed. Sure, they have a neat intro.. but half the stuff on the site is "Coming Soon" and the link for the trailer doesn't even work! How frustrating is that?
posted by epoh at 2:38 PM PST - 3 comments
Proprietary URLs?
How many of these non-standard prefixes does
your system support?
Just off the top of my head with the programs I have running right now, I can handle
nap: aim: hotline: and a few others, not counting all the ones built into my browser.
More inside...
posted by anildash at 8:51 AM PST - 2 comments
New Go?
Either Go.com really, really sucks, or I am just unable to find where the "new" go.com design is residing. And why doesn't c|net ever put related links in their articles? Do they assume I will just stay within c|net all day long?
posted by Brilliantcrank at 7:55 AM PST - 12 comments
My grocery store tells me my wife's cycle
- A few months of shopping after Kroger started its 'Plus' card and they know more about my wife than her children do. Yep, we have been using the Kroger card for a while now, but no more. For the last two months I have received a cupon for tampons only days before my wife needs them. Big Brother is not on TV, he is in the supermarket. Join the boycott at nocards.com.
posted by DragonBoy at 12:26 AM PST - 19 comments
September 14
Customization of a page was never easier. Mark Newhouse of
iBook, iMac, iBlog, has come up with this really cool way of skinning the blog using CSS via a nifty adaptation of a script by
Porter Glendinng. Now if we could mix this concept with
Jason's modification via cookies, you'd get a skinnable site rather than a skinnable page using just CSS and Javascript.
[Found the site via Zeldman]
posted by riffola at 8:45 PM PST - 4 comments
A friend of mine has started posting a [true]
story on ThemeStream. Interesting reading (if somewhat smutty and violent).
Plus, ThemeStream's royalty rate goes down soon, so read them now and help him suck even more VC money :)
posted by faisal at 3:35 PM PST - 8 comments
I'm not sure whether I'll actually use it, but the
:CueCat Reader that
Wired Magazine sent me for free is pretty neat. It is essentially a scanner that plugs into my computer and can "read" URLs in special bar-codes on ads or any UPC or ISBN. I scanned my thesaurus and a box of paper clips. Simple things ...
posted by quirked at 12:46 PM PST - 18 comments
This girl is, literally, fighting for her life.
Her name is Kaycee, she's 18, and she is desperately fighting cancer. And if everyone could put down their mice, stop typing on their keyboards, close up their browsers, and think
one good thought for this girl --
and her family -- maybe, hopefully, it would help.
Halcyon's
set up a message board for her. If you're so moved, you know what to do...
posted by metrocake at 12:36 PM PST - 58 comments
Yesterday's New York Times
says Gore is still in the lead (story gone to New York Times archive hell). A story today says they two are neck-in-neck and Bush has lost his comfortable lead.
Polls are worth about a nickel apiece when you burn them for firewood and can then turn down the thermostat.
posted by Mo Nickels at 11:18 AM PST - 1 comments
You can't copyright the design of a web page
in the sense that it's a "form." You can copyright your graphics and text; you can probably copyright your HTML. You can trademark the name of a font, but you can't copyright its design.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
posted by Snarl at 8:33 AM PST - 4 comments
The lead that Al Gore once enjoyed in most presidential polls in wake of the Democratic convention has all but disappeared, according to the latest
Voter.com Battleground 2000 poll released Thursday. The survey reports that the vice presidents numbers are slipping and George W. Bush is back on top for the first time in weeks.
posted by aaron at 7:31 AM PST - 22 comments
Anyone remember Studio Archetype? Man, were they ever great!
Today, as I was looking through the
"Official Site of the Sydney 2000 Games", I was saddened, at how sick it all is, I mean, little 30x50 banners for texaco? or for something called "win big, click here", it all might as well be "Click here for live nude 18 year olds" for all I care. Design?
There is no design, well, a good one anyway, all you see is this little 2point verdana type that shows the news. Seeing, ofcorse, how
no one else does this sorta thing. NOT AT ALL.
All I can do now, is dream of how good the Nagano site looked. And days of Archetype have been long over. Maybe it's sometimes good to look back, you see how every single site has become the same, link news here, provide in-depth stories here, place important graphic here.
posted by tiaka at 7:20 AM PST - 8 comments
September 13
More Evidence of Corruption
, as if it were needed:
"Sorry you missed the vice president....I know" you "will give $100K when the president vetoes tort reform, but we really need it now. Please send ASAP if possible."
posted by johnb at 11:24 PM PST - 5 comments
If you could
steal* any web design, which one would you take?
When I get around to it, I would like to do something like
this,
this or maybe
this.
*Stealing is defined as taking only the design codes and not any content off of the site without the designer's permission.
posted by tamim at 8:57 PM PST - 12 comments
Wen Ho Lee is Free! (sort of)
Is this too much of a "seen everywhere" news story to post here? Or is the fact that this story was finally getting "seen everywhere" part of
the good news???
posted by wendell at 5:03 PM PST - 12 comments </ 
